Friday, March 7, 2008

Comic Book Art

Uncle Mark made Jack 3 Picture Frames recently. Mark and I wanted to frame a few of the comic books we had and put them on Jack's bedroom walls. The frames are very nice, very simple and Mark should be quite proud of how they turned, but already becoming a real wood worker he hates his creations and vows to do much better next time. Still, Jack and I are quite pleased.

So which comics made the cut on Project Comic Book? As you know there are many talented and inspiring comics in our collection, but in the end only 3 can make it... the rest will be out. I put on my best Hedi Klum and ignored Michael Kors and Nina's opinions as I ransacked my comic boxes. I wanted the choices to be older, have some value, mean something to Mark and me and ultimately have a fun cover to admire. In the end I only opened three boxes and found the ones I selected.

Uncle Mark loved GI Joe growing up. This is one of the best issues by far. It has everyone's favorite character being discovered (Snake-Eyes). Written and drawn by Larry Hama this issue has no words, which is fitting for a character that is mute. The whole story occurs without words and sets up some of the better story arcs for the series with introducing Storm Shadow and a link between the two characters.

I searched on-line to find a current day price for this comic and it seems to be going for around $75 . I'm sure Jack will love this.

I collected this series from #1 all the way to #125. I was quite proud of it. This series was the second Spider-Man series ever published. I felt I had a chance to collect it all rather than try to collect Amazing Spider-Man. I did collect Amazing at the same time, but seemed to have sold it or lost it because very few remain in our collection. I blame Uncle Mark's selling frenzy of 91. This issue was inked and story lined by Frank Miller, who is best known for the Dark Knight series and Sin City comics (and 300), but his work with Daredevil was great. I really liked the cover and the Daredevil guest appearance.

I searched on-line to find a current day price for this comic and it seems to be going for around $35-&70 . This is the most expensive item in the comic line for this series.

No surprise Spidey makes the wall twice in this household. This issue Mark just happened to find in his boxes at Mom & Dad's. It is the introduction of Venom. Venom is one of Spidey's bigger villains and a really neat story arch. Todd McFarlane inked this one (best known for his own Spider-man series and Spawn comics, along with founding Image Comics).

The cover is what did it for me here. I admit to being a black suit fan from the beginning. Ironically it is this issue where he goes back to the red & blue tights.

I searched on-line to find a current day price for this comic and it seems to be going for around $350. Looks like Mark was clever in keeping this in Mint condition.

These three were the best of the best. They look great in the frames. I can't wait to crack them open in about 10 years to read them with Jack. He has a lot of comics waiting for him.

Other comics that made the top, but were eventually "projectrunway'ed" auf were:

GI Joe#2 because it was the hardest Joe for us to find ever and pricey when we did. Known fact I guess is that often the #2-5 are the hardest to find because less are printed. #1s of anything sell. So if you are buying the first of a series collect through 5 or 10 issues.

Spawn: Fell off the list for being too creepy for a child's room and the McFarlane I like was the Spider-man series. I felt his Lizard Spider-man story could have easily been a movie script.